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rHE ARCHAEOLOGY ( )F Ct BA. 



By Daniel li. Brinton, M. D., Professor of American Archaeology in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 



On page 244 of The Archaeologist for September, the editor very appropri- 
ately directs attention to the archaeology of Cuba, and conveys an inquiry as to 
what already has been accomplished in that line by the educated inhabitants of 
the island, or travelers. 

It is certainly timely to give a brief review of their labors and results, and 
this I shall attempt, without, however, aiming at completeness. 

The earliest special article on the subject with which 1 am acquainted is that 
of Senor Andres Poey, of Havana. He was a member of the American Eth- 
nological Society, and in 1855 read before it a paper entitled "Cuban Antiquities; 
a Brief Description of'Some Relics Found in the Island of Cuba." 

The article was not printed in English, so far as I know, but a Spanish 
rendering was published in the Revista de la Habana, Tome. IV, 1855. In this 
paper, Poey remarks on the scarcity of relics in Cuba, and figures four stone 
images found there, and attributed to the aboriginal inhabitants. All four rep- 
resent rudely some sort of anthropoid, or man-like animal, and as monkeys were 
not found in Cuba, Poey concludes that they were brought there from the c^.i- 
tinent. 

In March. 1862, Jesus Q. Garcia agreed to write a communication for the 
American Ethnological Society on the antiquities of Cuba (Bulletin of Proceedings, 
p. 14); but I find no further account of it in the records of the society. ( iarcia 
was the editor of the Revista de la Habana, and was interested in archaeology. 
In one of its numbers he gives an illustration of what is called a duchi, which is 
the common term in Cuba for the figures of stone or clay attributed to the 
aborigines. This particular duchi was a stone ring, with eyes and ears of gold, 
and was supposed to be the seat or throne of a chief, but probably was a stone 
collar. 

Another writer is Don Francisco Pi y Margall. In his Historia General de 
America, published at Barcelona in 1880, he figures and describes a number of 
relics from Cuba; but does not add the precise localities where they were found. 
Several of them are jars of pottery, without handles, finely finished; the others 
art' representations, in stone or pottery, of various objects; a fig (native); a head 
with large ears and a wide mouth; an arm, and two spheroidal objects which may 
have been duchis. 

In L881, Nicolas Fort y Roldan published his book Cuba Jndigena (Madrid), 
in which he has a few pages on the archaeology of the island. Apart from quota 
tions, he mentions only arrow points of stone, perf< >rated stones, and semi, or small 
idols and amulets, preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Madrid and in the 
University of 1 favana. 

In the same year ,1881, the International Congress of Americanists met at 
Madrid, and one of the questions proposed by it was: "From the archaeological 
investigations made in the island of Cuba, and from the types of the idols found 
there, can it be inferred that the) were the work of others than the tribe- found 

there at the 1 )iscovery ?"' 

To this question Don Miguel Rodriguei-Ferrer prepared a reply, which. 

with the discussion upon it. occupies fort) five pages of the ( \wiptc Rendu 

of the Congress. Mis conclusions were partly based on a cranium and skull 



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iounci in a cavern, which he figures, and claims to belong to a race diff* 
from the known natives; and further on two interesting idols in partly human 
form, of which also illustrations are given. He believes they must be attributed 
to some source not Antillean. 

So far as the bones were concerned, their value was disputed, and I think 
successfully, by M. Henri de Saussure; and I may add that a comparison of early 
sources, such as Oviedo, etc., leaves no reasonable doubt that the duchi were 
made and used by the natives met by Columbus. 

This same writer, Rodriguez-Ferrer, is the author of a book entitled 
"Naturaleza y Civilisation de Cuba," in which he has a chapter with the title, 
"Archaeological Studies on the Island of Cuba"; but not having seen the volume 
I do not know its scope. 

It should also be noted that in 1885 there was established in Havana an 
Anthropological Society, which published some numbers of reports; but as I 
have not met with all of them, I am uncertain whether they contain archaeological 
material. 

When U. S. Commissioner to the Columbian Exposition at Madrid in 1892 
I was disappointed to find that in the exhibit from Cuba there were no archaeolog- 
ical specimens whatever, and I noted this unfortunate omission in my official 
report (p. 43, Washington, 1895). Nor do I remember that any were displayed 
by the Archaeological Museum at Madrid, although some specimens could 
surely be discovered in its roomy installation. 

It is unfortunate that the precise provenance of the specimens which have 
been described is so indefinite. Those reported upon by Garcia appear to have 
been obtained near Bayamo in the province of Santiago; and it is noteworthy that 
it was on the north shore of this province, near Manicaras, that the first explorers, 
in 1492, said that they found figures of animals, carved from a single piece of_ — 
stone, in a sitting position, with arms, short legs, and a tail, the eyes and ears of 
gold (Fort y Roldan, p. 82). 

Another interesting locality, mentioned by Ferrer, is along the river 
Cuyaguatege, which is in the province of Pinar del Rio, and on the south of the 
island. This stream flows between lofty and broken banks in which are caves, 
where the aborigines interred their dead. The full examination of these would 
be doubtless of importance. Similar sepulchral grottoes have been found along 
the river Maya, about twenty miles from Baracoa. Some of the human remains 
and relics from these sites have been figured and described by Sr. Felipe Poev in 
his work entitled, Rcpcrtorio fisico-naturai de la Isla dc Cuba, published about 1870. 

One of the objects found by Ferrer and presented bv him to the Museum of 
the University of Havana (where it yet should be) was a statue three feet high, 
of black marble, representing the upper portion of a human figure, the face bear- 
ing a mild expression. This also was found among the mountains of the province 
of Santiago. 

As for earthworks, Ferrer refers to two- localities, in the eastern part of 
Santiago province, the one known as "Pueblo Viejo," the other as "La gran tierra 
de Maya," where there are circles, squares, mounds and enclosures, which, he 
says, resemble in general character, those of the Mississippi vallev. They are 
described in his work on Cuba above named (Vol. I, chap. III). (This Maya is 
not a Yucatecan but an Arawack word.) 

I have also learned of a locality, which I will not now further specify, in 
central Cuba, a river valley, along which, from time to time, one meets grim faces, 
carved from the natural rock, and sometimes monolithic statues, the work of the 
aborigines and believed to represent the guardian spirits of the river. This lo- 
cality I hope to have visited by a competent person this winter. 



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F"errer further mentions some ossuaries or interments near the Bay oi Santa 
Maria Casimha, on the southern coast of the province of Puerto Principe, at a 
place called Los Caneyes. These were noted as early as L843, and some un- 
satisfactory reports made about them; hut Ferrer himself seems unable to have 
reached the locality. 

The local archaeologist who has been the must active of recent years is Dr. 
Montane, whose residence is in Havana. Five years ago he had investigated the 
contents of 150 caverns, mostly in the province of Santiago, and had a list of 
250 more for further examination! He is a graduate of the Paris School of An- 
thropology, and announced in L893 the publication of a full description of his 
archaeological work, with maps and illustrations. 1 have not learned that he 
carried out this laudable intention. 

( )ne of his finds in the caves was a nephrite axe, or rather celt, seven and 
a half inches long, symmetrical and beautifully finished. It was shown to the 
Berlin Anthropological Society, and was acknowledged to he the finest object of 
the kind from America the members had seen (see the Verhandhmgen of the So- 
ciety for ( )ctober 28, L893). This was exhumed in the extreme east of the island, 
where there are many caves near the shore and looking seaward. These are 
particularly rich in pottery, hones and stone implements. 

More successful attention has been paid by Cuban writers to preserving the 
linguistic than the archaeological remains of the native inhabitants. The standard 
work on this branch is that of Esteban Pichardo, entitled Diccionario Provincial de 
voces Cithaiias. It has passed through several editions, im cop\ heim> ^fltfBi 
third (Havana. 1862). The author diligently collected all the peculiar and local 
terms, embracing very man}' which had keen derived from the natives before 
their extinction. Another list is contained in the work of Fort y Roldan, above 
quoted. 

These sources, together with the words and terms preserved by the first ex- 
plorers, enable us to ascertain beyond doubl the linguistic affinities of the native 
inhabitants at the time of the conquest. There is no question but thai the whole 
island was occupied by one stock, and this a branch of the great Arawack family 
of South America. This family can be traced in an uninterrupted series of re- 
lated dialects from the hanks of the river Paraguay to the Bahama islands. There 
were no (A'trihs in Cuba and none of the Maya stock, though both these .stems 
were known to the Cubans through expeditions of war or commerce. 

Xo trace of the Arawack linguistic stock has keen discovered in North 
America, and the "Antillean art" discerned in the Gulf States by Professor W. 
Ik Holmes, as well as the traces of Southern affiliation in the art of the Floridian 
"Key-dwellers." exhibited by Mr. F. Id. dishing, are recent introductions and 
not more than could have keen conveyed by the slight trade connections which 
we know existed between the Cubans and the Chahta-Muskokis of the I 
idian peninsula, al and for generations after the vo) age of ( '< rtumbus. 

The identity of the primitive language of Cuba with die Arawack w;i- 
firsl shown. | think, 1>\ myself, in an article in the Transactions of the American 
Philosophcial Societj for 1871, in which a considerable number of Cuban words 
are identified as ■ if that st, ,rk. 

Tins was, at thai time, a needed demonstration, as the opinions were cur- 
rently entertained that the natives spoke some dialed of the Tupi stock (of 
Brazil), of the Maya, or of the tongue of the Canar) islands. These notions 
were set forth in a work by Antonio Bachiller \ Morales, entitled ('///>./ Primi- 
tives. The announcement of it, which is before me. dated "Havana, 1881," states 
that it will diseus^ the antiquities of the island, and tin- traditions and lan- 
guages of its early inhabitants. Whether it was published or not, 1 have not 



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learned. The same author had published a volume as far back as 1845, 
Antigncdadcs Americanos, but from the notices I have seen of it, I doubt if 
occupied with the archaeology of Cuba. 

The ancient craniology of Cuba has been the subject of active debate. A 
number of skulls from the caves show artificial deformity. In the Thesaurus 
Craniorum of J. Barnard Davis will be found the description of six such, ex- 
humed in a grotto near Puerto Plata by Colonel J. L. Heneken. Others were 
obtained by M. Ferrer in 1847, and sent to the University of Havana. The 
discussion as to whether they were the crania of Caribs or of the native island- 
ers is briefly, but sufficiently, summed up in Professor Virchow's Crania 
Americana, pp. 18, 19. He reaches the unquestionably correct opinion that 
there is ample evidence to show the custom of artificially modeling the head pre- 
vailed widely through the island. Dr. Montane, however, asserts that there are 
yet living near Baracoa a few families descended from the native inhabitants 
who still have the same peculiar form of skull as shown by the skeletons in the 
caves. His note is in the Verhandlungcn of the Berlin Anthropological Society, 
June 16, 1894. 

A few words about the natives: The island was well populated, and divided 
into a number of tribal areas, the names and locations of which have been 
preserved. Their villages consisted of ten or a dozen communal houses, built 
of perishable material. Stone structures are not mentioned. The natives were 
cfo\ edium stature, with narrow noses and large eyes. Artificial deformation 
f i. cranium is distinctly mentioned. 

They were skillful boatsmen, and there is ample evidence that their trading 
voyages extended to Yucatan, whence they brought wax and woven goods ; to the 
Bahamas, and to Florida, whence it is likely they obtained the gold which they had 
in small quantities. 

The Conquest of Cuba occurred in 1514. In 1532 the first official census of 
the Indians took place. They then numbered only 4,500. Their destruction 
had been rapid, and they often killed themselves in groups of twenty or thirty 
at a time to escape capture and slavery. A few of their descendants, of mixed 
blood, are said to have survived until this century. 

These hints about the archaeology of Cuba could be extended. I have 
seen references to articles upon various ancient remains in the Mcmorias dc la 
Sociedad Economica de la Habana, and by an energetic collector, Sr. Francisco 
Jimeno, in the Rerista de Cuba. But these publications are not within my reach. 

What I have said will be sufficient to show that the subject has not been wholly 
neglected by intelligent Cubans, although it is true that there has been little 
serious investigation of the remains. The most promising localities for re- 
search would seem to be the extreme eastern and western provinces. Santiago 
and Pinar del Rio. In the caves of the latter we should, if anywhere, find traces 
of the Mayan culture, as it was from natives of that district that the Spaniards 
first heard vague rumors of the grandeurs of Mayan and Aztecan civilization. 

Media, Pa. 
[Reprinted from American Archaeologist, Columbus, O., Vol. 2, No. 10. 

October, 1898.] 



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